The following was written by a real journalist who is paid to write and report about current events for a living. They are in no way affiliated with Slashdot. (Slashdot is a joint venture between computer programmers and morons.)
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc. is being sued by a Pennsylvania man who charges that it illegally forces up prices when certain high bidders raise their maximum bid to guard against last-minute offers, an attorney for the plaintiffs said on Wednesday.
Not only is this summary 1/4 as long as the article summary published by Slashdot, it displays a superior level of understanding by its author. More importantly, it encourages readers to read the entire article, rather than pissing them off with typos or stupid statements like this
It seems that if your original maximum bid settnig prevents your current bid from falling on an increment then your current bid will be raised to the next increment as soon as you raise your maximum.
and this
If the plaintiff wins this class action suit could cost eBay tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is a case where, if I were a schoolteacher and "symbiot" was my student, I would encourage plagiarism.
Another reminder why the human race needs to develop spaceships and colonize other worlds. Unfortunitly, no one will give a shit until it is too late to save ourselves.
Well you should have just made sure you got the LOGIN and PASSWORD of the account. That's what I did when I bought my copy off of a friend of mine. You aren't paying for the key when you buy a used MMORPG you are paying for the account and who gives a @#$% if it violates Blizzard's EULA, because they are NOT going to care as long as they get their $20 a month somehow, from someone using that account! End of story.
My cousin sold his Ultima Online account over ebay without a hitch, so at first I thought this seemed kind of stupid. After reading the responses to the parent, though, I see that there is a problem with this system, at least from the purchaser of a used game.
Assuming this was purchased from an established store like Gamestop, it would be in the store's best interest to get this resolved; find the seller or refund the purchase. A permanent solution, however, will be difficult to find.
Unfortunately for would be used-WoW-buyers, nothing will change unless Blizzard decides to change the account system, which would be expensive. More importantly, should Blizzard want people to resell copies of games?
In the short run, no. Every copy of WoW resold represents a lost sale for Blizzard. Sounds familiar? It should. That's the mantra of record executives who blame file sharing for the drop in sales.
The record companies may be overzealous in their quest to purge the world of music piracy, but the concept applies much better to Mmorpg's.
What we need to remember is that Blizzard is counting on two types of revenue. The first is from people who buy the game. They're swept up by the women with big tits on the box cover, game magazine reviews, etc. The second type of revenue is the account revenue, which directly correlates to user satisfaction.
Bringing back the music industry analogy...there are two important counter-arguments to the music industry's claims.
1.) Filesharing helps increase sales of music by exposing listeners to more music.
2.) People wouldn't download the music they do if it weren't free, so the loss in sales is imaginary.
In the long run, reselling a game will increase revenue from accounts. If the used buyer likes the game, he may play it forever, bringing in more revenue than a player who buys the game and doesn't even get an account. This is like the "filesharing helps music sales" argument.
Also, people who would buy a used copy of the game wouldn't necessarily buy the game at retail price. But buying a game is a greater economic decision than buying a music cd, so we can assume that a few people would buy the game if used copies aren't available.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Blizzard's business model. How much of their revenue comes from sales of the game vs. account subscription? How many subscribers do they have and for how long do they expect to keep theses subscribers. What is the cost of making a retail copy vs. having a subscriber? We don't know, but how they handle this situation might be telling."
Slashdot Mirror
Not only is this summary 1/4 as long as the article summary published by Slashdot, it displays a superior level of understanding by its author. More importantly, it encourages readers to read the entire article, rather than pissing them off with typos or stupid statements like this
and this
This is a case where, if I were a schoolteacher and "symbiot" was my student, I would encourage plagiarism.
Don't wirry about it.
Another reminder why the human race needs to develop spaceships and colonize other worlds. Unfortunitly, no one will give a shit until it is too late to save ourselves.
Either that, or a reminder that Slashdot is dead.
"My first thought was similar...
Well you should have just made sure you got the LOGIN and PASSWORD of the account. That's what I did when I bought my copy off of a friend of mine. You aren't paying for the key when you buy a used MMORPG you are paying for the account and who gives a @#$% if it violates Blizzard's EULA, because they are NOT going to care as long as they get their $20 a month somehow, from someone using that account! End of story.
My cousin sold his Ultima Online account over ebay without a hitch, so at first I thought this seemed kind of stupid. After reading the responses to the parent, though, I see that there is a problem with this system, at least from the purchaser of a used game.
Assuming this was purchased from an established store like Gamestop, it would be in the store's best interest to get this resolved; find the seller or refund the purchase. A permanent solution, however, will be difficult to find.
Unfortunately for would be used-WoW-buyers, nothing will change unless Blizzard decides to change the account system, which would be expensive. More importantly, should Blizzard want people to resell copies of games?
In the short run, no. Every copy of WoW resold represents a lost sale for Blizzard. Sounds familiar? It should. That's the mantra of record executives who blame file sharing for the drop in sales.
The record companies may be overzealous in their quest to purge the world of music piracy, but the concept applies much better to Mmorpg's.
What we need to remember is that Blizzard is counting on two types of revenue. The first is from people who buy the game. They're swept up by the women with big tits on the box cover, game magazine reviews, etc. The second type of revenue is the account revenue, which directly correlates to user satisfaction.
Bringing back the music industry analogy...there are two important counter-arguments to the music industry's claims.
1.) Filesharing helps increase sales of music by exposing listeners to more music.
2.) People wouldn't download the music they do if it weren't free, so the loss in sales is imaginary.
In the long run, reselling a game will increase revenue from accounts. If the used buyer likes the game, he may play it forever, bringing in more revenue than a player who buys the game and doesn't even get an account. This is like the "filesharing helps music sales" argument.
Also, people who would buy a used copy of the game wouldn't necessarily buy the game at retail price. But buying a game is a greater economic decision than buying a music cd, so we can assume that a few people would buy the game if used copies aren't available.
Ultimately, it all comes down to Blizzard's business model. How much of their revenue comes from sales of the game vs. account subscription? How many subscribers do they have and for how long do they expect to keep theses subscribers. What is the cost of making a retail copy vs. having a subscriber? We don't know, but how they handle this situation might be telling."
mod up interesting